PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2020

9 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 12/20 www.petpla.net Tethered capped bottles: Introduction in stores planned for the spring of 2021 Starting on July 3, 2024, closures of beverage packag- ing with a capacity of up to 3 l must remain attached directly to the bottle. The mineral water bottler Vöslauer Mineralwasser GmbH is the first company in the German-speaking market to implement this provision of the Directive and is presenting the tethered cap for the 4x1 l packs, which is to reach retail shelves in the spring of 2021. The Austrian market leader is taking another impor- tant step towards the responsible use of the valuable resource plastic with this innovation – four years before the legal deadline. After the introduction of the first bottle made entirely of rPET in 2018, the launch of the tethered cap is yet again proof of how committed the innovative family-run company is to sustainability and protecting the environment. “We are extremely pleased to have reached another packaging technology milestone. This innovation is the result of our good collabo- ration with and the outstanding expertise of our Austrian partner Alpla. We are strong partners and together are creating new opportunities to act in ways that benefit the environment,” said Herbert Schlossnikl, managing director at Vöslauer. The tethered cap is stated to lead to no compromises whatsoever in terms of quality or drinking pleasure. “The new cap can be unscrewed as easily as the previous caps, and the refreshing taste of our mineral water has not changed,” explained Schlossnikl. The cap can be turned off to the side with a slight twist so that it does not interfere with pouring or drinking directly from the bottle. Vöslauer managing director Birgit Aichinger added: “A band connects the cap directly with the bottle so that it cannot be lost. The cap can be disposed of together with the 100% rPET bottle in the yellow plastic recycling bags or collection bins in Austria, or together with the bottle in a reverse vending machine in Germany.” The new packaging solution will reach shelves in Austria in the middle or end of March 2021, and in Germany at the end of May 2021. The tethered cap will initially be launched on all min- eral water varieties sold in the 4x1 l bottle packs in Austria and Germany, and will later be expanded to all packages. www.voeslauer.com/bleibt-dran KHS support-service for tethered caps The EU directive pertaining to tethered caps will come into effect in July 2024: KHS will support customers in finding a solution in good time that suits all requirements. This directive concerns all manufacturers of PET bottles with volumes of up to 3 l. From discussions with customers KHS concludes that customers are orienting themselves towards a future-proof standard with regard to the upcoming EU specification and want to implement it as efficiently as pos- sible be it through simple conversion or lasting resource savings by using fewer materials in the production line. Depending on the type of closure, one can test versions of the tethered cap on existing sys- tems in advance with just a few adjustments. The customer can thus put this time to good use to choose the type of closure that suits best. During this phase, KHS will be happy to advise on how customers can permanently save resources and thus cut costs by reducing the weight of closures and threads. For this, KHS consider the entire production process, because as experts in turn- key filling and packaging systems KHS focus on the complete line. From the container design to secondary packaging (or tertiary packaging), KHS looks at the options for resource savings whilst at the same time increasing the efficiency of the system. www.khs.com Erratum An article on issue 11, p 49 of PETplanet Insider, showed a wrong picture. The article “The new MRSjump recycling extruder – PET tray-to-tray recycling in a single extrusion step” from Gneuss erroneously shows Herbold’s new hot washing system at the company’s test centre (news p 6). The photo of the Gneuss MRSjump recycling extruder that should have been assigned to the article is shown below.